Hundreds of people flocked to beaches in Khanh Hoa Province on June 20 for the Doan Ngo Festival in the belief bathing will bring them luck.
Hundreds of people flocked to beaches in Khanh Hoa Province's Nha Trang City
Local people often call it by another name, the “Pest Exterminating Festival”; the festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month which is the beginning of summer and a time when pests and parasites proliferate.
Doan Ngo is dedicated to getting rid of as many as possible.
To prepare for the day, people usually cook a jar of com ruou nep cam (a violet-coloured fermented glutinous rice pudding), and buy fruits and tro cakes (made from glutinous rice, green bean and coconut).
They will have a special breakfast with these foods, which are believed to help cleanse their internal systems.
Early in the morning, people in Khanh Hoa Province's Nha Trang City go to the local beaches to bathe and wish each other good health and luck.
Among mountain people, they go into the forests to gather medicinal herbs because they believe that this is a very lucky day.
Many old people in Khanh Hoa also have a bath today in the belief bathing will bring them luck
Nha Trang beach on today (June 20) morning
